This project was organized by Heather M. Mikolaj (Curator)
and Clare\nHaggarty (Assistant Curator)\, in collaboration with University
of\nCalifornia\, Santa Cruz faculty Dee Hibbert-Jones and E.G. Crichton

Subversive Complicity brings together a group of artists whose wo
rk\ninhabits the interstices of contemporary life &ndash\; physical\, tempo
ral\, and\nconceptual gaps within existing structures &ndash\; in order to
subvert\neveryday systems and raise social awareness in subtle\, humorous\,
and\nradical ways. What happens when artists working within these spaces\n
adapt and co-opt the strategies\, languages\, mannerisms\, and\nvisualizati
ons from divergent social personas and cultural sources to\ncreate alternat
ive modes of action and expression? The resulting range\nof projects presen
ted in this exhibition suggests the myriad of\npossibilities for public and
private transformation to emerge when\nartists assume such diverse roles a
s agent provocateur\, broadcaster\,\npolitical activist\, conversationalist
\, oral historian\, engineer\,\nbroker\, trader\, benefactor\, gamer\, and
even evangelist. Through gallery\ndocumentation of past actions and a serie
s of ongoing and special\nevents these artists invite audiences into a set
of conversations\,\nresistances\, and exchanges at once real and imagined\,
geographic and\nsocial\, local and global. Come join us in this exploratio
n of how art\ncan disrupt\, re-shape\, and otherwise invigorate our daily e
xistence\nthrough interventions enacted on the streets of San Francisco\, a
cross\nthe landscape of the Bay Area\, and within other cities and virtual\
nrealities far beyond. This exhibition was developed in association with\nt
he Intervene! Interrupt! Rethinking Art as Social Practice Festival hosted by the University of California\, Santa Cruz. For more information
\, please visit: http://may2008.artintervention.org/ .